


glasnost

by anthonyedwardstark



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1980s, Fluff, Get Together, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 11:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthonyedwardstark/pseuds/anthonyedwardstark
Summary: It’s a tough loss to the Sabres. The older guys in the room take it in stride, the guys like Phil Bourque and Paul Coffey. But the younger guys, Sid especially, are frustrated, and they’re tired of losing.“It’s one out of eighty, Sid,” Mario says as he drops a hand on Sid’s shoulder.Sid throws his skates in his bag and brusquely says, “We still lost it. And it’s the third one in a row.”“Can’t win ‘em all, bluenose” Paul says from across the room.“Maybe you no good, Coffey, but I’m win all games one season. I’m best,” Geno says from the locker room bench.“Keep dreamin’, Russki,” Bob Errey says.





	glasnost

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by the [SidGeno Photo Challenge](https://sidgenophotochallenge.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, check out my [Tumblr](https://eighteaseven.tumblr.com/).

It’s a tough loss to the Sabres. The older guys in the room take it in stride, the guys like Phil Bourque and Paul Coffey. But the younger guys, Sid especially, are frustrated, and they’re tired of losing.

“It’s one out of eighty, Sid,” Mario says as he drops a hand on Sid’s shoulder.

Sid throws his skates in his bag and brusquely says, “Yeah. I know. We still lost it. And it’s the third one in a row.”

“Can’t win ‘em all, bluenose” Paul says from across the room.

“Maybe you no good, Coffey, but I’m win all games one season. I’m best,” Geno says from the locker room bench.

“Keep dreamin’, Russki,” Bob Errey says.

“Fuck you, Frenchie,” Geno says back with a smile and a joking middle finger.

“We have the next couple of days off. Maybe, like, veg out or something, Croz. Take a chill pill,” Recchi suggests.

“Yeah, I’m with Marky. Maybe don’t start wiggin’ out this early in the season, man. We’re not even a month in.”

“Yeah, cool out, dude!” Dan laughs while he unlaces his skates.

“Bite me,” Sid grumbles to the room.

“Geno, you’re tight with Sid. Maybe, like, show him how to chill for the next few days, eh?”

Geno turns to Sid, “You want to hang out?”

Sid purses his lips, “Okay, but not because anyone told me to, alright? It’s because we’re friends.”

“Whatever you say, kiddo,” Coffey laughs.

“So what we do?”

“I’ve been looking to get up to Allegheny National Forest. We could drive up tonight, stay Sunday and Monday then head back Tuesday morning?”

“Sound good. We take my car, yes? Is best. Everybody like. Car is sick!” Geno teases.

“Not even, man. We’re taking my Jeep. Your little sports car can’t even handle gravel. No way am I getting stuck in the mud in that thing.”

“Harsh,” Geno jokes.

Sid smiles back.

“I’ll go back to Mario’s and pack, then I’ll come pick you up, okay?”

“Okay. See you one hour!”

 

* * *

Sid honks when he pulls up outside the Coffey residence and he honks again a few minutes later when Geno still hasn’t come out.

Eventually the front door opens, and Geno walks out with a duffle bag over his shoulder.

“What took you so long?” Sid asks through his rolled down window.

“Why you get here so early?” Geno responds while he opens the back door to throw his bag in the back seat next to Sid’s.

“I’m not! I told you one hour, it’s been one hour!” Sid complains as he cranks the window back up.

Geno walks around to the other side of the car and hops into the passenger seat.

“Is okay. I’m here. Let’s go. No more complain,” Geno says.

Sid rolls his eyes and puts the Jeep in first gear.

“How long is drive?” Geno asks.

“Mario says it’s about an hour and a half up 79 to Tionesta. I figure, we’ll get there by midnight, find a hotel, and tomorrow morning we can get breakfast then go to the Forest.”

“I don’t know midnight is good. If Mario say drive is one and half hour for him, it take you three hours. You drive slow, like  _babushka_. Should let me drive,” Geno teases.

Sid laughs back, “Get real, man! No way am I letting you drive. We’d be dead with the way you book it down the highway!”

“So mean! Where the jams, Sid? No music?” Geno asks.

“Alright, alright,” Sid says as he turns on the radio.

_“When asked to evaluate his_  glasnost _policy after its first year of implementation, General Secretary Gorbachev said ‘_ Glasnost _is working. Openness, transparency can only help the Soviet people.’”_

_“In other news, in a press conference this afternoon, the Center for Disease Control announced that the AIDS epidemic has passed a new threshold, with now more than 100,000 reported cases of the disease in the Unite-”_

Sid reaches out and twists the dial until the white noise clears and a Janet Jackson song plays through the speakers.

 

* * *

They finally arrive in Tionesta two hours later, and after driving around for a while, they spot a Holiday Inn with vacancies. They rent a room with two doubles and they each crash into bed immediately after dropping their bags on the floor.

Sid wakes up first the next morning, but decides to lay in bed for a while, enjoying a rare lazy morning. When the paddles on the alarm clock eventually flip to 9:00, he finally convinces himself to get out of bed and jumps in the shower. After drying off, he puts on his boots, some Levi’s, and a thick plaid flannel shirt, then goes downstairs to claim his free breakfast, leaving Geno still snoring into his pillow.

* * *

Geno walks into the dining room in a bright blue tracksuit just as Sid pulls his Belgian waffle from the waffle iron.

“What on Earth are you wearing?” Sid asks, awed.

“Is tracksuit. Comfy, look nice. Is okay to be jealous, Sid,” Geno says as he peels a banana.

Sid just laughs and shakes his head, then drowns his waffle in maple syrup.

“So much sugar! Make my teeth hurt, and I’m not even eat!” Geno says.

Sid cuts a huge piece off and eats it in one bite without breaking eye contact.

After they both finish their breakfasts, they walk up to the reception desk and get directions to the entrance to the forest. Sid makes sure to diligently write down every step the concierge lists.

“You drive here. Now is my turn to drive.”

“No way, Geno. I’m not letting you crash my car!”

“I’m not crash! Why you think I crash? I’m never crash. Also, Jeep not crash, just roll over, yes? So is nothing for worry!”

“Nope. I’ve got the keys. That means I’m driving,” Sid says as he dangles them in the air.

Geno’s just quick enough to grab them.

“Hey! Give them back! Those are my keys!”

“Hmm, no. Sorry. I have keys, mean I drive!” Geno says smugly, as he holds them in the air, just too high for Sid to reach.

Sid finally gives in and Geno gets in the driver’s seat, pointedly pushing the seat all the way back and adjusting the mirrors.

“Why you so short?” he teases.

Sid just rolls his eyes and holds back a smile.

 

* * *

Geno gets them to the forest entrance safe and sound and parks the car. When he hands Sid the keys, he says, “See? I’m very good driver. Best.”

Sid ignores Geno and walks past him to the information desk. He signs them in, names and time, and what they’re wearing in case they get lost and people need to look for them. Then Sid leads them out onto the trail. Geno follows behind.

“You know, maybe it is a good thing you’re wearing that horrible tracksuit after all,” Sid says with a grin.

“Why you so mean to me? I’m very nice, but you just mean,” Geno grumbles.

“That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. You’re the biggest bully I know!”

“So mean to me! And why you say is good thing I wear if you think so ugly?”

“If we go missing, there’s no way anyone will walk by without seeing us! We’ll be found right away. It’s so blue! And hunters too! They’ll see you from miles away!” Sid laughs.

After a few minutes of walking and teasing, they stumble on a train track.

“Maybe we should follow the tracks,” Sid suggests.

“Why? Animals not like trains. Not see any deer or rabbits. Too loud,” Geno complains.

“There will still be plenty of them. It’s not like a train goes by every hour or anything. I just thought it would be a good way to make sure we don’t get lost in here. You know I’m bad at directions.”

“Yes, you very bad. Worst.”

“I won’t even argue that one.”

“Is good you know this. We walk with trains then.”

“You like forest, trees?” Geno asks after they’ve been walking next to the train track for a while.

“Oh, for sure. I bought a house up in the woods back home in Nova Scotia this past summer.”

“You serious?”

“Yeah. I love being out there, seeing the deer and hearing the birds every morning. I love it.”

“Sound nice. Canada sound like nice place.”

“It is. My favorite place in the world.”

They walk in silence again for a while before Sid asks, “What’s it like over there? In the Soviet Union, I mean.”

Geno thinks for a while before he speaks.

“I grow up in Magnitogorsk, in Russia. Is steel city, like Pittsburgh. Air is not very good there. People get sick. There is not always food. But the people are my people. They are good, working people.”

“Do you miss it?”

Geno pauses before speaking.

“My family is there, and for this, I love my country. Country that make good people like my mama, my papa, is good place, good country. But, for me, I do not like it. I do not miss it. I like play hockey here.”

“There’s not many of you guys here from the USSR. Just you and Fedorov and a couple other guys. Moligny. Why’d you defect?” Sid asks

“NHL is good hockey, yes? I’m good hockey too. Best hockey.” He answers with a teasing grin.

Sid can’t help but smile back. He bumps his shoulder into Geno.

“But seriously, Geno? Why’d you do it?”

Geno chews on his lip and says nothing for a while, they just keep walking. He looks at Sid out of the corner of his eye before he asks.

“We friends, yes?”

“Of course.  _Best,_ ” Sid replies with a gentle smile, but Geno doesn’t smile back at the small joke.

Geno stops walking and puts his hands in the pockets of his tracksuit. He stares down the train tracks and takes a breath before he begins to speak.

“I remember, I’m still little, I’m 10, back in Magnitogorsk. My family, we listen, hear on radio, ‘In America, they are wrong. They let  _pedik_ and  _gomik_ have marches in the streets. In America, Men kiss in the street and they do not arrest them. This is the morals of the west.’”

Geno pauses and he and Sid stand in silence, listening to the birds sing.

Geno rubs his hands over his face before he speaks again, still refusing to meet Sid’s eyes.

“My papa and my mama and my brother, everybody, all they say ‘this is why the west will fall, because they are weak, no morals.’ But… but, I hear this and I’m think, if they do not arrest them there, maybe is not so bad place to be. Maybe… maybe I’m want to be there.”

“Oh,” Sid breathes out.

“When Gorbachev say, we have more openness, with  _glasnost_ , you know, I say I go right now to America, before they change their mind, say ‘No, we won’t let you go. No passport, no papers. You are always here’,” Geno finishes.

They stand in silence by the tracks, only the sound of birds fill the air. Sid turns suddenly and grabs Geno with both hands and pulls him in for a hard, closed mouth kiss. It’s not a very good kiss. Geno’s chapped lips are shoved hard against his teeth by the force of it, but it’s the best thing Geno’s ever felt. He’s never felt warmer than he does right there, in the brisk October chill.

Sid pulls back and his cheeks blush even pinker than the crisp, fall air had colored them. He looks down, won’t meet Geno’s eyes. But Geno pulls his left hand out of his pocket and holds it out to Sid. Sid looks up at Geno and shyly smiles when he takes Geno’s hand. Geno smiles sweetly back.

Geno gently raises his other hand to brush his thumb along Sid’s flushed cheek. He runs his thumb down Sid’s cheek to his mouth, drags it across Sid’s full bottom lip, and Sid gasps. Geno leans down and presses a much softer, sweeter kiss to Sid’s lips.

Geno pulls back a few inches, and softly asks, “Yes?”

Sid nods.

They resume walking along the tracks, hands together, occasionally looking at each other from the corners of their eyes and smiling, but still saying nothing.

“I like living with Mario,” Sid announces.

Geno raises his eyebrows.

“But… maybe I could move out. And, um, maybe you could move out of Paul’s. And, maybe, you know, we could find a place together, be roommates or something.”

Geno smiles so brightly.


End file.
